Kalixa buys PXP Solutions

Kalixa, the next-generation FinTech business, today announced that it has acquired PXP Solutions, a privately-owned company with a 27-year track record in the card payment processing sector.

The acquisition extends Kalixa's addressable market to more than 100 countries globally and puts Kalixa in the top five payment services providers in the world based on capability, payment options delivered and ability to provide merchants of all sizes with multi-channel payments on a single platform. The deal reinforces Kalixa's ability to offer a broad range of payment options contained in a single eco-system to every sector of the market. Based on their independent volumes from 2013, the combined business processed total transaction volume worth more than €10BN. Financial terms of the acquisition are not being disclosed.

The expanded Kalixa group will offer payment services to merchants and retailers of any size across any channel, using any device - all from a single integrated technology platform. Both Kalixa and PXP will continue to operate under their existing brand names and address their respective parts of the payments market.

Based in Hertfordshire, PXP's in-store payments technology is used by 8,000 merchants and retailers in 27 countries worldwide. Its customers range from SMEs to leading consumer brands including Urban Outfitters, Burger King and SAGA. It processes 3.6 million transactions per month.

The deal represents significant value for customers who choose to use Kalixa's end-to-end payments offering, through the delivery of improved customer loyalty, data collection and analytics, access to more product innovations and improved operational efficiencies.

The new, expanded Kalixa group will be led by Ed Chandler, Kalixa's current Chief Executive Officer. PXP's former CEO, Ritz Steytler, will take on the role of Chief Operating Officer. Kalixa's Julian Leigh (Chief Financial Officer), Kamran Hedjri (Chief Strategy Officer) and Jonathan Bennett (Chief Commercial Officer) complete the senior executive team. There are no plans to reduce the enlarged group's 200-strong employee base or close any offices.

"With the acquisition of PXP, we've created a world-class payments company with an unrivalled portfolio across the entire payments value chain," said Ed Chandler. "Kalixa now has the scale and breadth of services, as well as the expertise and insight, to disrupt the global payments market and deliver a significant amount of added value to our merchants. We are focused on introducing Kalixa Pro and Kalixa Pay services to PXP's extensive portfolio of merchants across 27 countries and in the process diversify into new sectors such as retail, travel and leisure, and financial services."

Ritz Steytler added: "The payment industry has a reputation for being complex, expensive and inflexible, while adding little value to merchants and consumers alike. As a result of joining together with Kalixa, we can provide merchants of all sizes with one partner, one contract, and one service on a single, proven and fully integrated payments platform."